Abstract
The study of humor development progressively increased through the decade of the 1970s. Evidence of the resurgence of interest in this long-neglected area of development may be found not only in the increasing number of journal articles devoted to it, but also in the recent reissueing of Wolfenstein’s (1954) psychoanalytically oriented Children’s Humor in 1978 and the publication of Children’s Riddling (McDowell, 1979), Humor: Its Origin and Development (McGhee, 1979), and Children’s Humour. (McGhee & Chapman, 1980). Most of this research has focused on the elementary school years, with studies of preschoolers being second most frequent. Surprisingly, very few studies have dealt with humor among adolescents, and those have rarely been developmental in nature. While college students remain the most frequently studied age group in this as well as other areas of research, these studies have also rarely been conceptualized to examine developmental change. While a number of studies have used subjects at various points in the postcollege adult years, the author knows of only one that investigated humor development among the elderly (Schaier & Cicirelli, 1976). Thus, while a decade or so of research has sharply increased our understanding of the development of humor up to about junior high school age, we remain completely ignorant of developmental changes from early adolescence through the years of advanced aging. The present chapter is designed to draw attention to this void and to begin to stimulate a life span approach to research on humor development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Reference Note
Bell, N. J., & McGhee, P. E. Social interaction implications of humor. Paper presented at meeting of the Southwestern Society for Research in Human Development, Galveston, 1982.
References
Alford, R. The structure of human experience: Expectancy and affect: the case of humor. Journal of Social Biological Structure, 1980, 3, 247–254.
Bass, S. H. The relationship between parental behavior and children’s pretend play. Unpublished Masters thesis, Texas Tech University, 1981.
Bates, E. (Ed.), The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. New York: Academic Press, 1979.
Berlyne, D. E. Conflict, arousal and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960.
Berlyne, D. E. Laughter, humor and play. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 3). Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1969.
Berlyne, D. E. Humor and its kin. In J. H. Golstein & P. E. McGhee (Eds.), The psychology of humor. New York: Academic Press, 1972.
Brackett, C. W. Laughing and crying of pre-school children. Journal of Experimental Education, 1933, 2, 119–126.
Brodzinsky, D. M. The role of conceptual tempo and stimulus characteristics in children’s humor development. Developmental Psychology, 1975, 11 843–850
Brodzinsky, D. M. Children’s comprehension and appreciation of verbal jokes in relation to conceptual tempo. Child Development, 1977, 48, 960–967.
Brodzinsky, D. M., Feuer, V., & Owens, J. Detection of linguistic ambiguity by reflective, impulsive, fast-accurate and slow-inaccurate children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1977, 69, 237–243.
Brodzinsky, D. M., & Rightmyer, J. Individual differences in children’s humour development. In P. E. McGhee & A. J. Chapman (Eds.), Children’s humour. Chichester, England: Wiley, 1980.
Brodzinsky, D. M., Tew, J. D., & Palkovitz, R. Control of humorous affect in relation to children’s conceptual tempo. Developmental Psychology, 1979, 15, 275–279.
Bronson, W. C. Central orientations: A study of behavior organization from childhood to adolescence. Child Development, 1966, 37, 793–810.
Bronson, W. C. Adult derivatives of emotional expressiveness and reactivity-control: Developmental discontinuities from childhood to adulthood. Child Development, 1967, 38, 801–817.
Brown, G. E., Brown, D., & Ramos, J. Effects of a laughing versus a nonlaughing model on humor responses in college students. Psychological Reports, 1981, 48, 35–40.
Brown, G. E., Wheeler, K. J., & Cash, M. The effects of a laughing versus a nonlaughing model on humor responses in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1980, 29, 334–339.
Chapman, A. J. Funniness of jokes, canned laughter and recall performance. Sociometry, 1973, 36, 569–578. (a)
Chapman, A. J. Social facilitation of laughter in children. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1973, 9, 528–541. (b)
Chapman, A. J., & Foot, H. C. (Eds.), Humour and laughter: Theory, research and applications. London: Wiley, 1976.
Chapman, A. J. & Foot, H. C. (Eds.), It’s a funny thing, humour. Oxford, England: Pergamon, 1977.
Chapman, A. J. & Wright, D. S. Social enhancement of laughter: An experimental analysis of some companion variables. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1976, 21, 201–218.
Chess, S. Temperament in the normal infant. In J. Hellmuth (Ed.), Exceptional infant (Vol. I). New York: Bruner-Mazel, 1967.
Chukovsky, K. From two to five. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963.
Cupchik, G. C., & Leventhal, H. Consistency between expression behavior and the evaluation of humorous stimuli: The role of sex and self-observation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 30, 429–442.
Davies, A. P., & Apter, M. J. Humour and its effect on learning in children. In P. E. Mhee & A. J. Chapman (Eds.), Children’s humour. Chichester, England: 1980.
Fisher, S., & Fisher, R. L. Pretend the world is funny and forever: A psychological analysis of comedians, clowns, and actors. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1981.
Freud, S. Jokes and their relation to the unconscious. New York: Norton, 1960. (Originally Der witz und seine Beziehung zum unbewussten. Leipzig and Vienna: Deuticke, 1905).
Fry, W. F., & Allen, M. Make ’em laugh. Palo Alto: Science and Behavior Books, 1975.
Fuller, R. G. C., & Sheehy-Skeffington, A. Effects of group laughter on response to humorous material: A replication and extension. Psychological Reports, 1974, 35, 531–534.
Gardner, H. E. Children’s literary development: the realms of metaphors and stories. In P. E. McGhee & A. J. Chapman (Eds.), Children’s humour. Chichester, England, 1980.
Garvey, C. Play. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977. (a)
Garvey, C. Play with language and speech. In C. Mitchell-Kernan & S. Ervin-Tripp (Eds.), Child discourse. New York: Academic Press, 1977. (b)
Goldstein, J. H., Suls, J. M., & Anthony, S. Enjoyment of particular types of humor content: Motivation or salience? In J. H. Goldstein & P. E. McGhee (Eds.), The psychology of humor: Theoretical perspectives and empirical issues. New York: Academic Press, 1972.
Helmers, H. Sprache und humor des kindes. Stuttgart, Germany: Ernst Klett Verlag, 1965.
Horgan, D. Learning to tell jokes: A case study of metalinguistic abilities. Journal of Child Language, 1981, 8, 217–224.
Janus, S. S. The great comedians: Personality and other factors. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1975, 35, 169–174.
Kagan, J. & Kogan, N. Individual variation in cognitive processes. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Carmichas manual of child pscyhology (Vol. I). New York: Wiley, 1970.
Kagan, J., Rosman, B. L., Day, D., Albert, J., & Phillips, W. Information processing in the child: Significance of analytic and reflective attitudes. Psychological Monographs, 1964, 78, (1, Whole No. 578).
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B. (Ed.), Speech play. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976.
Kris, E. Ego development in the comic. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1938, 19, 77–90.
La Fave, L. Humor judgments as a function of reference groups and identification classes. In J. H. Goldstein & P. E. McGhee (Eds.), The psychology of humor. New York: Academic Press, 1972.
La Fave, L., Haddad, J., & Maesen, W. A. Superiority, enhanced self-esteem, and perceived incongruity humour theory. In A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humour and laughter: Theory, research and applications. London: Wiley, 1976.
Leventhal, H. & Cupchik, G. C. The informational and facilitative effects of an audience upon expression and evaluation of humorous stimuli. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1975, 11, 363–380.
Leventhal, H. & Mace, W. The effect of laughter on evaluation of a slapstick movie. Journal of Personality, 1970, 38, 16–30.
McCall, R. B. & McGhee, P. E. The discrepancy hypothesis of attention and affect in infants. In I. C. Uzgiris & F. Weizmann (Eds.), The structuring of experience. New York: Plenum, 1977.
McDowell, J. H. Children’s riddling. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1979.
McGhee, P. E. Children’s appreciation of humor: A test of the cognitive congruency principle. Child Development, 1976, 47, 420–426.
McGhee, P. E. Humor: Its origin and development. San Francisco: Freeman, 1979.
McGhee, P. E. Development of the creative aspects of humour. In P. E. Mhee & A. J. Chapman (Eds.), Children’s humour. Chichester, England: Wiley, 1980. (a)
McGhee, P. E. Development of the sense of humour in childhood: A longitudinal study. In P. E. Mhee & A. J. Chapman (Eds.), Children’s humour. Chichester, England: Wiley, 1980. (b)
McGhee, P. E. Play, incongruity and humor. In T. D. Yawkey & A. D. Pelligrini (Eds.), Child’s play: Developmental and applied. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1983.
McGhee, P. E. & Chapman, A. J. (Eds.), Children’s humour. Chichester, England: Wiley, 1980.
McGhee, P. E. & Duffey, N. S. Racial-ethnic differences in the onset of children’s appreciation of humor victimizing different racial-ethnic groups. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1983, 14, 29–40. (a)
McGhee, P. E. & Duffey, N. S. The role of identity of the victim in the development of disparagement humor. Journal of General Psychology, 1983, 108, 257–270. (b)
McGhee, P. E. & Kach, J. A. The development of humor in black, Mexican-American and white preschool children. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 1981, 14, 81–90.
McGhee, P. E. & Lloyd, S. A. A developmental test of the disposition theory of humor. Child Development, 1981, 52, 925–931.
McLoyd, V. C. Social class differences in sociodramatic play: A critical review. Developmental Review, 1982, 2, 1–30.
Meryman, R. Carol Burnett’s own story. McCall’s, February, 1978.
Pelligrini, A. D. Speech play and language development in young children. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 1981, 14, 73–80.
Piaget, J. The origins of intelligence in children. New York: International Universities Press, 1952.
Schaier, A. H. & Cicirelli, V. C. Age changes in humor comprehension and appreciation. Journal of Gerontology, 1976, 31, 577–582.
Schwartz, T. Comedy’s new face. Newsweek, April 3, 1978, 60–71.
Schwartzman, H. B. Transformations: The anthropology of children’s play. New York: Plenum, 1978.
Shultz, T. R. Role of incongruity and resolution in children’s appreciation of cartoon humor. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1972, 13, 456–477.
Shultz, T. R. A cognitive-developmental analysis of humour. In A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humour and laughter: Theory, research and applications. London: Wiley, 1976.
Shultz, T. R. & Robillard, J. The development of linguistic humour in children: Incongruity through rule violation. In P. E. Mhee & A. J. Chapman (Eds.), Children’s humour. Chichester, England: Wiley, 1980.
Sigel, I. E. & Brodzinsky, D. M. Individual differences: A perspective for understanding intellectual development. In H. L. Horn & P. L. Robinson (Eds.), Psychological processes in early education. New York: Academic Press, 1977.
Singer, J. L. The child’s world of make-believe. New York: Academic Press, 1973.
Smyth, M. M. & Fuller, R. G. C. Effects of group laughter on responses to humorous material. Psychological Reports, 1972, 30, 132–134.
Sutton-Smith, B. A developmental structural account of riddles. In B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (Ed.), Speech play. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976. (a)
Sutton-Smith, B. The dialectics of play. Schorndoff, West Germany: Verlag Hoffman, 1976. (b)
Thomae, H. The concept of development and life-span developmental psychology. In P. Baltes & O. G. Brim, Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 2). New York: Academic Press, 1979.
Tower, R. B. & Singer, J. L. Imagination, interest, and joy in early childhood: Some theoretical considerations and empirical findings. In P. E. McGhee & A. J. Chapman (Eds.). Children’s humour. Chichester, England: Wiley, 1980.
Wilde, L. The great comedians. Secaucus, N. J.: Citadel Press, 1968.
Wolfenstein, M. Children’s humor. Glencoe, 111.: Free Press, 1954 (reprinted by Indiana University Press, 1978).
Wolff, H. A., Smith, C. E. & Murray, H. A. The psychology of humor I. A study of responses to race-disparagement jokes. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1934, 28, 341–365.
Yawkey, T. D. & Pelligrini, A. D. (Eds.), Child’s play: Developmental and applied. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum, 1983.
Zigler, E., Levine, J., & Gould, L. Cognitive challenge as a factor in children’s humor appreciation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1967, 6, 332–336.
Zillmann, D., & Cantor, J. R. Directionality of transitory dominance as a communication variable affecting humor appreciation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 24, 191–198.
Zillmann, D., & Cantor, J. R. A disposition theory of humour and mirth. In A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humour and laughter: Theory, research and applications. London: Wiley, 1976.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1983 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McGhee, P.E. (1983). Humor Development: Toward a Life Span Approach. In: McGhee, P.E., Goldstein, J.H. (eds) Handbook of Humor Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5572-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5572-7_6
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5574-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5572-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive